“A Deeper Devotion” - Cameron Jungles - (Eastside Baptist/Sun PM/September 22, 2013)

“A Deeper Devotion” (Eastside Baptist/Sun PM/September 22, 2013)

 

1. Cultivate an unquenchable desire for God himself.

 

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. ² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42:1-2, NIV)

 

2. Cultivate an unquenchable desire for God by spending time in his Word.

 

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Ps. 119:97, NIV) ¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps. 119:103, NIV)

 

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. ⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. ¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. (Ps. 19:7-10, NIV)

 

¹⁵ "If you love me, keep my commands. (Jn. 14:15, NIV)

 

3. Cultivate an unquenchable desire for God by spending more time in prayer.

 

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14-19, NIV)

 

4. Cultivate an unquenchable desire for God by spending more time in worship.

 

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. ² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42:1-2, NIV)

 

Main Idea: Greater fruitfulness is inseparably related to the cultivation of a deeper devotion for God.

 

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. ¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:7-14, NIV)